Constitutional Amendment Proposals - B. Initiative not Referendum

Minnesota should amend the Constitution to give the voters a right to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution by popular petition known as, “Initiative.”

Presently Minnesota does not have initiative or referendum. Only the legislature can propose and pass statutes and the only way to change the Constitution is by Amendment requiring the permission of a majority of both houses of the legislature and submitted for approval at the general election.

When the people in other states have put cannabis on the ballot themselves cannabis has won. Our intransigent legislature won't allow cannabis on the ballot as an Amendment to the Constitution, but we can have a plebescite by proxy with a cannabis candidate on the ballot. That's why the Grassroots Party changed its name to GRASSROOTS-LEGALIZE CANNABIS, to put legalize cannabis on the ballot.

All too often politicians are afraid to introduce progressive legislation because it might hurt their chances for re-election. Time after time politicians fear they might anger their corporate contributors, district voters or they’re opposed to certain issues for personal reasons.

Single issues are often in opposition to the political goals of politicians and therefore they can’t be trusted to introduce or vote to allow the state’s voters to decide for themselves whether a law or constitutional change should occur.

If elected representatives refuse to trust their own constituents to make decisions on their own future without their paternalistic guidance, then they don’t deserve to be in office anyway.